Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 6
The art of selling the
dream online
“Selling Luxury is a dream and there should be no nightmare issues
lurking behind that dream.”
—quoted from
Luxury Considered
At a recent dinner, I had the privilege of being in the company of sev-
eral luxury professionals, including the creative director of a major lux-
ury brand, the CEO of a PR firm, a fashion journalist and the owner of
a Parisian atelier that creates exceptional luxury accessories for major
international luxury brands. Among the interesting conversations of the
evening was talk about a newly launched luxury leathergoods and acces-
sories brand and its approaches to communications and public relations.
When someone asked about the brand's store location in Paris and around
the world, I replied that the brand had a global online store on its website,
from where its collections are retailed and shipped worldwide, in addi-
tion to plans of a store-in-store opening at Galeries Lafayette and other
department stores in Europe. My highly respected table companion then
said pointedly, “Yes I know that they have the Internet and all that stuff but I
meant to know where the
real
store is located.” I was quite lost as to what
to answer to this comment because he had obviously not understood me.
The implication of this statement is that the e-boutique of the brand in question
was not considered as a “real” retail location. This unfortunately remains the
stance of several luxury brands despite the likes of Louis Vuitton, Tiffany's
and Gucci which continue to generate substantial revenue online.
Until 2004, several luxury brands had not given any thought to retailing
online. The mantra of most of the French luxury brands at this time was that
the e-retail (I prefer this term to e-commerce, which sounds too mass-market)
of luxury goods was marketing
à l'américaine,
which basically means
an orientation towards selling at all costs, even if it means price discount-
ing and bombarding clients with offers ranging from free shipping, 24-hour
deliveries and all manners of promotions that would lead the client to “buy
now”. The general perception was that this approach was for mass-market
products that didn't require an enhanced shopping experience or an elevated
